


Plight of the Sorcery Children

by bethany81707



Category: Fire Emblem Heroes, Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken | Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword
Genre: Child Neglect, Cookies, Drawn Weapons, Flash Fic, Gen, Library, Past Abuse, murderous intent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:54:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26083015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bethany81707/pseuds/bethany81707
Summary: In fetching Annette from the great library, Mercedes meets another young mage with parental issues.
Relationships: Annette Fantine Dominic & Mercedes von Martritz, Jaffar & Nino (Fire Emblem)
Kudos: 15





	Plight of the Sorcery Children

If you asked the librarian of Askr where she acquired the countless tomes stored within, you would be dreaming, because that is not how the library of Askr works. Instead, the tomes of Askr hold knowledge, experience, the wisdom of a thousand trials as experienced by the countless summoned, and what books form are prone to changing while not being read. It’s the perfect place to lose all sense of time and reason, and it is not unusual to find Heroes poring over the contents- or even sleeping with a book open in their lap. Mercedes wandered through them all, identifying her Annie with practice and snatching her attention with a deft poke.

“Time to leave if you want the cookies to still be deliciously warm when you get there,” Mercedes said.

“Aw, Mercie, do you have to keep calling me away with cookies?” Annette groaned, closing a book and putting it in its shelf before Mercedes could read the cover. The title on the spine was at an angle and Mercedes could not read it without making it obvious, so decided against trying.

“...Cookies?” a girl mumbled, looking up from her table. Mercedes turned to her, seeing another young girl absorbed in reading. She had always thought Annie to be young for the schools she had enrolled in and the progress she had made, but this girl looked to be even younger.

“Would you care for some? The recipes of Askr serve a lot more than I’m used to, we’d have a tummyache if we kept them to ourselves,” Mercedes asked.

“That sounds great!” she said, closing her book and leaving it next to the shelf.

“...Shouldn’t you at least put it back?” Annette asked, looking for its space on the shelf.

“Oh, I can barely read, I need the large print the books can make to even try on my own. I have no idea how this sorting thing works, and someone seems to have taken a book from this shelf since I did,” the girl said. Annette went to the book and found its place, while Mercedes found her hand going into hers relatively quickly.

“So what’s your name, then? I’m Mercedes, and this here is my darling Annette,” Mercedes asked, sending a flush down Annette’s cheeks as per usual. Every time Mercedes used that turn of phrase, it seemed to mean something else.

“I am Nino, and I am a mage who learned from powerful techniques used by… strong sorceresses,” the girl said. The pause didn’t sound like it was hiding a happy story, and Mercedes didn’t particularly want to poke at it on the spot.

“Not your family? You seem a little young to have been some sort of apprentice,” Annette asked.

“Well, she raised me calling herself my mother, but she never did act like one. She didn’t even really teach me my magic, I just copied her. I don’t like to think of her as family, not anymore,” Nino said. That was nice, Nino had come from a time when she had come to grips with such a story.

“But… she’s family. You can’t just run out on your mother like that!” Annette said. The next moment, a blood red dagger appeared at her throat and the assassin’s other arm threw itself around her waist.

“Do not speak of that monster like that.” A short sentence, spoken barely above a whisper, but one that rattled in the heads of both Annette and Mercedes.

“Jaffar, please don’t jump people like that,” Nino told him, exasperated. In Askr, death was recoverable, if mildly unpleasant. Or at least, that was how Mercedes kept herself calm dealing with her brother. Whether Nino had reached this conclusion herself or her own angel of death was just that jumpy, Mercedes was not particularly keen on finding out through trial and error.

“Little warning would’ve been nice!” Annette said, as soon as her throat felt up to the task of making noises. Her glare seemed partially directed at Mercedes, who had indeed wondered why she felt like the malevolent presence of her brother was loitering around the library of all places.

“So I take it your mother wasn’t a great person,” Mercedes said.

“That morph was not even a mother,” Jaffar spat. His eyes were lined with a fury Mercedes had seen only in Rhea, but the rest of his face did not join in.

“Sonia came to look after me when my parents died because I was gifted in magic. All she wanted out of me was a good little assassin, and all I wanted was to show her I could be that perfect little girl she wanted,” Nino explained. Mercedes thought that sounded familiar.

“...She was horrible, right?” Annette asked, not looking Nino or Mercedes in the eye.

“Well, yes. She was actually not human and she tore apart the family that actually raised me so a madman could gain the power to summon dragons into the world and cause disaster. And then she starts talking,” Nino said.

“Some people just weren’t meant to be parents. Omnicidal golems, cowardly atoners, people who… actually, that’s not an appropriate example for a kid your age,” Mercedes said.

“You told me,” Annette snapped back.

“And it was a rather depressing conversation, same as this one. Which is why now is cookie time,” Mercedes said, having noticed they had made it to the kitchen at last. She had a cookie in both girls’ mouths, earning her a glare before they took a bite and allowed the taste to claim their attention. Mercedes held one up for Jaffar, who took it and ate it with all the stoicism of her brother, only expressing his appreciation of the treat with joyfully closed eyes.

“You sound like you have experience with awful parents. Would you care to enlist my help in dealing with them?” Jaffar asked.

“If I felt they deserved to die, I already have someone who can do that,” Mercedes told him coolly.


End file.
